How to Use The Top Gear Feature of Raidbots

Every time you want to sim something new, you will need to import your character.

1. Make sure that the Simulationcraft AddOn is installed and enabled.
2. Open your chatbox and type in /simc.
3. Now that the SimulationCraft window is opened, hit Ctrl+C on your keyboard to copy your data.
4. Open up Raidbots Top Gear and paste in your data from the addon.

To make things simple, make sure that you are currently in the talent setup that you want to sim for. You should also make sure that all the gear you wish to compare is in your Bags and not your Bank.

If you did Step 1 correctly, you should see the Raidbots page fill out with all of the gear from your bags.

1. Select all the items that you wish to compare. You can probably not do every item at once, so try and keep it to just a few slots at a time.
2. Verify that your Talents, Soulbind, Conduits and so on are correct, and that you have set up Raidbots' configuration appropriately.
3. Press the Find Top Gear button.
4. Wait for the Sim to finish.

Once the Sim has finished, you will be presented with the Results page.

Margin of Error is the average variation in the simulation's DPS, and it is an expression of how accurate the result is. In any given sim, the DPS can swing by the Margin of Error multiplied by 2. In the above example, our Margin of Error is +/- 3, meaning that the total DPS variation is 6. In other words, this means that all different results that are within 6 DPS of each other can be thought of as "equal", or simply "within the margin of error". Basically, you cannot go wrong with any of the choices that are within the Margin of Error.

SimC Git Hash refers to the precise version of SimulationCraft that was used for your sim. By clicking on this, you will be taken to SimulationCraft's Github Page where you can see all of the most recent changes in your SimC Git Hash. This can be helpful when you are simming and trying to work out if a very recent buff/nerf/hotfix is actually implemented in your sim. When SimC's developers perform commits called "update SpellDataDump", that is generally a good indicator that any buffs/nerfs/hotfixes made to the game before that commit will be implemented in SimulationCraft, and thus your sim.

In the large, central box, you will be able to see your best gear setup based on the options you chose to sim. For most purposes, your job here is done and you can simply equip what the box tells you, and be good to go.

If you want to dive deeper, you can scroll down and see results like the ones above.

Here, you can see the actual DPS numbers for every setup combination that your sim generated. As you can see, we can equip some new Leggings but it will only be a Sidegrade because it is only 6 DPS better than our currently Equipped setup, which as we explained earlier is basically our Margin of Error.

However, I may equip these new Leggings anyway. They have Avoidance and Versatility which my currently equipped Leggings do not have, both of which are a nice bonus aside from raw DPS.

Equipping the alternative Cloak I selected is a DPS loss in any case, however, so I will be keeping my current Cloak item.

On the Top Gear Results page, when given the option, we always recommend setting Show Gear Differences From to Top Gear. It makes it a lot easier to keep track of what is actually changing between each run. You can find this setting just below the large box that contains your Top Gear:

Now that you have learned how to equip the best gear, you may want to combine this with all the best Gems and Enchants for your character.

Often the differences between different Gems and Enchants are very subtle. You are only changing a small amount of stats around, and usually Secondary Stats in WoW are pretty close in value, but it can still be worth doing to find that competitive edge.

The Add up to X sockets option is helpful for figuring out how much DPS you could gain by Socketing certain items using Ve'nari's Spatial Realignment Apparatus. For example, if you have already socketed some Bracers, but you just got some new ones, you can use this option to simulate a socket on your new Bracers and see if they are actually an upgrade.

1. Use Step 1 to import your character into Raidbots.
2. Scroll down past the Gear section and find the Enhancements section.
3. Make sure that "Replace Existing Gems/Enchants" is ENABLED. This ensures that you will actually be comparing different Gems and Enchants.
4. Select all of the Gems and Enchants that you want to compare. Keep in mind that adding a lot of different Gems and Enchants can make the Iteration Count hit the limit very quickly. Try and be critical with the choices you make, or if necessary, do multiple sims with different Gem/Enchant combinations in each.
5. Press the Find Top Gear button.
6. Wait for the Sim to finish.

As you can see in the Results above, there are a ton of different Enchant and Gem combinations that all sim within the Margin of Error. Using this information, you can make more accurate decisions about Gems and Enchants. For example, if Versatility gems and enchants are within the Margin of Error of your "best" stat, then you might go Versatility instead because it also reduces your damage taken. You may also prefer Haste because it is a bit faster to play with in-game, which can be more fun.

Another useful thing you can do in Top Gear is try out different talents. Even if you already know the best talents for every fight, it can be helpful to know the actual DPS gaps between Talents in different situations, so that you can make more educated decisions in the future.

1. Use Step 1 to import your character into Raidbots.
2. Scroll down past the Gear section and find the Talents section.
3. Select all of the Talents that you want to compare.
4. Press the Find Top Gear button.
5. Wait for the Sim to finish.

There are a few other options under the Talents section, but they have fairly niche uses and are not recommended.

In the above example, I am trying to compare Careful Aim/Explosive Shot, and Lock and Load/Volley Talents and all the combinations that exist of those. In my case, Explosive Shot and Volley are more AoE-oriented, while Careful Aim and Lock and Load are more single-target oriented. This sim can tell me the actual single-target DPS loss of going with Lock and Load instead of Volley, which is very helpful if I am in a situation that calls for both single-target and AoE for figuring out the best compromise. In my case, I learned that Volley is less than 1% single-target DPS loss, but Lock and Load is an AoE DPS loss of over 4%, so I should probably go Volley.

With Top Gear, you can also work out the DPS losses and gains can be from trying different Covenants and Soulbinds. The best part is that you do not need to actually change these things in-game to see how they change your output.

If you are tired of your current Covenant, this can help you work out which other Covenant you might want to try without losing too much DPS to be competitive.

Unlock all Soulbinds and Unlock All Conduits should always be checked for these simulations. They allow you to sim everything related to Soulbinds and Conduits without actually having access to them in-game.

The Conduit Item Level Override can be used to set Conduit Item Levels to the same so that you are making an apples-to-apples comparison. You can also use it to "level up" Covenant-specific Conduits that you do not have access to.

1. Use Step 1 to import your character into Raidbots.
2. Scroll down past the Gear section and find the Soulbinds section.
3. Select all of the nodes on the Soulbind Tree(s) that you want to compare, and select all of the Potency Conduits that you wish to compare. Do not bother with Endurance or Finesse Conduits, as we can only sim DPS anyway.
4. Press the Find Top Gear button.
5. Wait for the Sim to finish.

As you can see in this example going for a Kyrian setup would cost me almost 5% DPS, at least on a single-target, which is a high price to pay. You can also see a variety of alternative setups using different Conduits.